Richard Stanley knows first hand how a movie theater can be a tipping point for a community. After all, fourteen years ago, he opened The Triplex, a brand new independent movie house in Great Barrington. By all accounts, The Triplex was the catalyst for Great Barrington's metamorphosis, attracting new restaurants, shops and tourists. "Nobody expected that to happen," says Stanley. "It took a while." But Pittsfield is a different story, and there are high hopes that the opening of the Beacon Cinema in a renovated department store on North Street will have a transformational effect on the downtown immediately. "There is much more anticipation," says Stanley, who admits that the name was chosen for its symbolism. "The theater will be like a beacon lighting the way for ships in the ocean —that's how esoteric the name is," he says, chuckling. "People have been waiting for this for a long time. There hasn't been a first-run movie theater in Pittsfield for at least 15 years." Just up the block from the rotary, the Beacon Cinema is not a Triplex redux. The theater will have stadium seating and a digital projection system that will allow it to show the same film on all six screens at once as it will do on Thursday, November 19, at midnight with a special showing of The Twilight Saga: New Moon, which has already sold out. Amazingly, the theater complex, which was designed by the Great Barrington architecture firm of Clark & Green and built by Allegrone Construction, was finished ahead of schedule.
While many Pittsfield boosters are most excited by how the theater will effect the city's nightlife—Cultural Pittsfield is hosting a block party beginning at 8 p.m. on November 19 to commemorate the opening—the Beacon Cinema has the potential to change the city's daytime complexion too. "We are going to be able to show children's movies which we really can't do at the Triplex because the distributors often want a six week commitment," says Stanley, who notes that most films will have a first show around noon and a late show beginning after 9 p.m. "We'll offer movies with a broader appeal than what we show at The Triplex." Located in the old Kinnell-Kresge building (the red-and-gold Beacon Cinema logo is based an old Kresge 5 & 10 sign that was unearthed in the renovation), the theater already has its first independent tenant: The Marketplace Kitchen, which supplies all the prepared food at Guido's in Great Barrington. "They will have a cafe just like the one they have in Sheffield," says Stanley (although you won't be able to bring your coffee and sandwich into the theater with you.)
The economic ripple effect is already happening with Shiro, the Great Barrington Japanese sushi-and-hibachi place, opening soon across the street. Kelley Vickery, the founder of the Berkshire International Film Festival, is so excited about the Beacon Cinema that she offered to lend a hand to get the theater ready for opening night. "I'm wiping down counters and vacuuming," she said by cellphone from the lobby on November 18. "It's absolutely beautiful. It's the best movie theater in the Berkshires—everything is state of the art. It's great for everyone who loves movies, but it's especially great for the city of Pittsfield. I wish I owned a business right next door!"
